Sitcom was destined for tasty success
THE prison bars slammed shut behind Ronnie Barker 45 years ago and a classic comedy sitcom was set free. The first series of Porridge began on BBC 1 on September 5, 1974, and saw habitual criminal Norman Stanley Fletcher joining inmates like prison cook Lukewarm (Christopher Biggins) ‘Orrible Ives (Ken
Jones) and Blanco (David Jason) at HMP Slade.
Richard Beckinsale played Fletcher’s impressionable cell mate and first-time offender Lennie Godber. Luckily, Fletcher took the youngster under his wing and showed him how to survive prison life and do his time.
The comedy came from the writing team of Dick Clements and Ian la Frenais and they managed to mine comedy gold from the disparate characters banged up together, while not ignoring the unpleasant facts of prison life. Fulton MacKay played strict prison warden Mr McKay with Brian Wilde as the gentler prison officer Mr Barrowclough.
Fletcher had made his first appearance a year earlier in a pilot called Prisoner And Escort and proved so popular that Porridge followed. Ronnie Barker said he knew from the start that Porridge would be a success.
He once said of Fletcher’s first appearance: “It was in front of an audience, which is a wonderful sounding board as to how well it’s going. My wife was in the audience for that and she said afterwards ‘This is going to be a big success’ and she was right.”
The sitcom ran for 20 episodes over three series with two Christmas specials and the final episode in 1977 saw Godber being released on parole and heading off on holiday with Fletcher’s daughter Ingrid.
A short-lived spin-off called Going Straight ran in 1978 following Fletcher’s life outside of prison with future Only Fools And Horses star Nicholas Lyndhurst playing Fletcher’s son Raymond.
There was also a Porridge film in 1979, filmed shortly before the sudden death of Richard Beckinsale at the age of 31.
In it, Fletcher was talked into arranging a football match between inmates and celebrities unaware that it is a distraction for a prison escape.